One of the Bay Area’s most talked-about startups is getting a new CEO — one with a long history in the food and beverage business. Soylent has a new leader.

“Starting from scratch and turning my passion for a better food system into a booming business with world class products and employees has been the experience of a lifetime,” former CEO Rob Rhinehart said in announcing his resignation, effective immediately, on Dec. 11.

Rhinehart will remain as Soylent’s largest investor and executive chairman, he said in a blog post.

He said his role had evolved toward delegating his responsibilities to scientists, managers and executives who were “clearly better at their roles” than he would be.

“After much deliberation I have decided to pass the reins to a new CEO with more management and industry experience,” Rhinehart wrote.

Bryan Crowley, formerly Soylent’s president, is the new CEO. His resume, since graduating from the University of Iowa in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in communications and journalism, includes many years with food and beverage companies, including Mars and Pabst Brewing Company.

At Soylent, one of Crowley’s tasks will no doubt be repairing Soylent’s reputation, after reports that its food bar and meal-replacement drinks were causing diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems.

“Should Soylent be giving me gas on par with chemical warfare gases such as Agent Orange or Mustard Gas?” wrote a purported consumer on a Soylent company forum, who went on to describe their nether regions as “a fiery volcano excreting noxious odors that are currently unknown to science.”

The company’s products — bottled drinks and powdered drink mix, after a food bar was pulled from the market amid reports of ill effects — have become popular among Silicon Valley tech workers who don’t have employers feeding them free lunch and resent the time it takes to consume actual food when they could be writing code or pitching game-changing new products.

Crowley, in a blog post about his new position, described e-commerce giant Amazon as “an amazing partner helping us get more Soylent in the hands of more consumers nationwide.” Crowley also cited 7-Eleven as another avenue for retail distribution of Soylent products.

The new CEO noted that the future will hold challenges.

“We’ve had a few along the way,” Crowley wrote, “but we’ve learned from each one and have come out on the other side smarter and more determined than ever.”

Ethan Baron is a business reporter at The Mercury News, and a native of Silicon Valley before it was Silicon Valley. Baron has worked as a reporter, columnist, editor and photographer in newspapers and magazines for 25 years, covering business, politics, social issues, crime, the environment, outdoor sports, war and humanitarian crises.

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